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Change to SSD?
I own an Alienware 17 laptop with a 50GB hard drive that is almost full.
Is it possible to change my hard drive to an SSD with more storage space? How can I check on that if it is possible?
If it is possible, I assume I have to buy a version of Windows to put on it.
Any information on the subject is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
U2CAMEB4ME
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Posted November 16th, 2019 07:00
Welcome to the Dell Community @BobbyB999
Depending on your model you may just need to add a second SSD/HDD???
To better assist you, the members would need the exact model number of your laptop/desktop???
Identify your Dell:
Best regards,
U2
PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY SERVICE TAGS!!!
I think the model is P18E but I'm not sure. There is not a lot of info on the bottom of the laptop. If that is not ocrrect, where should I look for the model number?
I misspoke about what I currently have. I have a 1TB 5400RPM SATA 6Gb/s hard drive.
jphughan
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Posted November 16th, 2019 07:00
You don’t need to buy another Windows license. Your license is tied to the system, not the hard drive, so as long as you have an active Windows license at the moment, you can replace the hard drive in an existing system no problem. And yes it would certainly be possible. I would start by going to support.dell.com to obtain the service manual for your system so you can see what is physically involved. It’s probably not very difficult. Then it’s just a matter of buying a compatible SSD. If you currently have a traditional hard drive, you’d want a 2.5” SATA SSD, in which case I’d recommend the Samsung 860 Evo, which is basically as good as consumer SSDs got before things moved on to even faster NVMe SSDs. Just make sure you buy the 2.5” version (shaped like a box) rather than the mSATA or M.2 version (looks like a little circuit board). Or depending on the generation of Alienware 17 you have, you might actually have slots for an NVMe SSD, in which case you could go that route for an even bigger upgrade. And that would even allow you to also keep your existing hard drive installed if you wanted to later wipe it and repurpose it as a data disk.
Finally, in terms of actually using your new SSD as your main Windows disk, you can either perform a clean Windows installation and reinstall everything from scratch or clone your existing disk to the new one using a tool like Macrium Reflect Free, which as the name implies is free. It’s also pretty easy to use and has great documentation available.
Hopefully this helps!